Windows XP Home SP3 Cant boot into safe mode from a crash Sony laptop VGN-A790

yes, maybe I'm understanding something wrong. I want to do the chkdsk with error correction, so I don't want to work on repairs first, I want to find out what repair I need to do. Doing the chkdsk will tell me that?

In the nLite forum I was asked for a copy of a .txt file so they could see what was in my xp home disk, and when they saw it, they said I had parts of xp home and xp pro, could be that sony does that unfortunately. Also, what I don't know is, were parts of hirens, and parts of nLite, in the copy I sent them, since I had tried to make the those disks, before sending the copy of the text file. They had mentioned it was quite possible.

How can I use the xp recovery console to fix the corrupted file? Yes I have a bootable usb drive, when I lost my hard drive a few years back I think I used ubuntu on my usb to get my files out of the system, that was before it completely died on me, and when I had a hard drive that I could borrow, from a friend. I no longer have access to an external hard drive.

If you think I should download hirens again, I will do that. I have my usb, and I can try burning the disk again, I threw out everything I downloaded, except for the software so what I still have is imgburn, nLite, auto streamer and isobuster. I did that because I was told my only solution was an xp home retail version with sp3 to do the what I keep calling repair, that I am now understanding to be chkdsk. Not sure how to get to my bios in this situation?  Yes the hard drive was replaced about 3-4 years ago. But if I remember correctly I used the the recovery console or the disk, to set it to factory.

 I downloaded hirens again, and here's the screen shot of what is in it, should be all there, but what is the cdcc, and the burntocd, and the hbcdcustomizer, anything i need to work with/use/ or am I just using the hiren's boot cd with the windows 7 burner? I thought at the same time I would add it to my usb to have both ways just in case. So, how does that work, just copy it (the boot cd) to my usb drive?

Today I got a  new Hiren's zip and using the ISO therein, burned a CD with Windows 7 burner and it worked fine (It would not unzip for me two weeks ago).

I just made a bootable USB drive using Windows 7 and Rufus (see below for Rufus) using that same ISO file and it worked fine.

I have never heard of Hiren's not working in the manner you described earlier so maybe there was a problem with the download or unzip that day so you can download it again and see how it works.

I also uploaded the exact Hiren's ISO I used to my OneDrive so you might want to just download that (still takes a few minutes to download).  Note that zipping an ISO file will not result in a smaller download since ISO files are already compressed.

Here are instructions for that if you want to go that route:

Here is the link to my OneDrive and you can look for the file you need there:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=EC673DF6F8DFEE84&id=EC673DF6F8DFEE84!109

The file you need is called: 

Hiren's.BootCD.15.2.iso.

When you see the files available for download, you may not see the file extension (.exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.), but when you download them they will have the correct extension.

When you download the file (especially if you use Internet Explorer), when you get a chance to save the file, your browser may not save the file with an extension (like .exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.) so you will have to manually add the proper extension to the file when you download the file before you save it.

You can download the file with no extension and then rename the file to add the proper extension.  You don't want to try to use a file called Hiren's.BootCD.15.2 when the file name really needs to be called Hiren's.BootCD.15.2.iso (if the downloaded file has no extension you will have to change the name of the file to add the proper extension to get it to work.

You can make a new CD or if you want to make a bootable USB thumb drive instead/too, here's how:

Download RUFUS 1.4.x.x (or whatever the latest version is) (read some stuff on the page so you can know more about it):

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I will caution you to be careful that you don't accidentally format any of your hard drives - be sure your USB stick is in and know what the drive letter is!  This part always makes me a little nervous, so be careful.

Launch RUFUS and all the defaults should be okay, for the Device, choose your USB drive letter, Quick format, FAT32, label it if you want to and in the Format options box, click the little icon that looks like a CD and a window will open.  Navigate that dialogue to point to the folder that contains the Hiren's.BootCD.15.x.iso that you downloaded or unzipped earlier and the box should change to say ISO image (RUFUS understands the Hiren's ISO file).

Double check you have the right Device selected in the top (NOT you HDD) Click Start, acknowledge the warning and let it finish (it will take a little while) as it copies the files.   The Hiren's ISO is also good size.

When RUFUS is done, it will say 'DONE' in the bottom.

Put the USB stick in the afflicted machine and reset/reboot and press whatever key you need to press to get to a boot menu where you can select the USB as the first boot device (that is F11 for me).  If you don't see a boot menu choice, you will have to adjust your BIOS to boot from the USB first instead of the HDD.

When the Hiren's menu comes up, choose the Mini XP Mode and it will start loading (slowly from a USB drive) and eventually you should see a Windowsy looking desktop.  You should recognize that part and feel comfortable, but it is not your desktop - it is the Hiren's desktop!

Remember:  You did not boot on your hard disk - you booted into the Hiren's desktop.

One way to check the disk for errors is to open My Computer and right click your afflicted drive and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now... put a check mark in both the boxes and then Start.

Sometimes that doesn't work, so you can also click Start, Run and in the box enter:

cmd

Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)

chkdsk  c:  /r

This disk checking can take a long time (perhaps several to many hours) depending on the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what the disk checking finds to do.

Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find. 

Depending on the the speed of your system, the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what chkdsk finds to do, it may take a long time for chkdsk with error correction to complete (several to many hours) or it may appear to be 'stuck'.  Be patient.  If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something so don't interrupt it.  It will finish eventually one way or the other.  Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress.  It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.

You may have to run the chkdsk  /r  it more than once.

Well now I think the original problem with the Hirens disk, is that I never changed the file to .ISO I just left it how it was when I downloaded it, see the pic above. Could that be the problem?

Could be - you could rename it to .iso or just download the ISO file from my OneDrive.

I have posted those same Hiren's instructions dozen and dozen (maybe hundreds and hundreds) of times without any reports of the problem you described, but that was always with XP...  Maybe there is something about my method that does not work the same in Windows 7.

I really did not expect the Windows 7 burner to work, but it did.

same thing again after burning your disk to a dvd, no icons, no start menu, just green grass and a blue sky image that is blurry. I did see while it was loading that it gave this message, "no PXE stack commands (hang up means you have a problematic config)... " not sure how long I should wait for a desktop, but I did try right click and got nothing. Will wait about 10 more minutes, then going to try the usb drive but don't think I will get anything since I get this way, twice now. Don't think it's the Hirens disk, think it's my computers error.

I was about to create the bootable usb, when I thought I should ask, it is a San Disk cruzer 4gb bootable, I just looked it up on Amazon and even today costs $20 and on other sites $25. I paid around $40 at the time, and the disks on ebay are $29. I didn't realize it was going to alter the usb itself. It says all data is destroyed, I copied the data to the windows 7 lap. But will it alter the usb, so that I can't put the data back on it? I don't think I want to destroy this one, I have a less expensive one, but I don't think it's bootable by itself.Do you think I should try the ultimate boot CD first?